The metal community is a very small one in Pakistan. People have varying perceptions of Metal itself, mostly revolving around guys screaming their lungs out with lyrics demeaning various entities or states and playing loud blaring tunes.  The said Perception is the common one in Pakistan with the majority tagging the genre as something of distaste.This distaste could recently be seen at the Royal Rodale gig.

That being said, it is important to safeguard community assets. These assets are the members of the community itself;  these members are the ones who go up and play gigs, who perform, who write and review, who compile releases  and who come and support the bands themselves.

Iron Markhor is an idea brought up by a couple of young members of the underground, the creation of an information store locally. Metal Seinen supports this store as it can potentially help out this genre/part of the music community. This is not just an ‘initiative by a couple of guys’, the idea is to build up on this initial thought.

The issue with stampedes inc is not a large one but it is being ballooned and the members of markhor are being provoked/threatened. Threatening two young members  is beyond anything online or anything which one strives to do independently in this vein. The actual threat is beneath mention at this point.

What we would like to state is that StampedesInc has been making bold claims of print ezines, of online ezines and collaborations.  The Markhor members were contacted for their input on the website and the claims were repeated. Being a free project community system;  project members such as the Iron Markhor members are free to leave or continue. The collaboration continued untill the point where the compilation issue came up.

The result has bared itself within a couple of months. No real substance and a compilation of 10 second songs.  StampedesInc has also indulged in a war of words and personal attacks on the markhor members. Regardless, we intend to end this matter on a note that there have been too many flame/attacks all around; we all are working for the underground and not for personal egos/fame.

The community in Pakistan has room for more then one news blog since there is a grave dearth of actual content.

On an ending note; A suggestion to the current members of Iron Markhor to get their act together regarding the scene. A focus on updates locally and to put aside ego and self-promotion.  Personal attacks and tags on anyone will not be allowed at the Iron Markhor.

Thank you all.